Final Nielsen Ratings: CBS' Selection Show Down From '10; NBC Up For WGC At Doral

CBS' NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Selection Show led all sports telecasts last week with a 4.0 final Nielsen rating. That figure is down slightly from a 4.1 rating last year. CBS ended up with ratings gains for coverage of the men's conference championships last weekend. The net saw increases for the Big Ten Championship (+8.7%), Pac-10 Championship (+30.8%) and Atlantic 10 Championship (+33.3%). The net's coverage of the Conference USA Championship was flat. ABC's coverage of the SEC Championship saw a ratings drop of 30.8%. NBC saw year-over-year ratings gains for the WGC-Cadillac Championship on both Sunday (+21.1%) and Saturday (+7.7%), while the Blackhawks-Capitals telecast was flat compared to the same matchup on the same weekend last year. ABC was down for its NBA telecast last Sunday, which featured Magic-Suns. Ratings for the game were down 41.7% from the comparable Celtics-Cavaliers game last year. The charts below list final Nielsen ratings from recent sports telecasts. Figures for Fox were not available at presstime (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).

TELECAST

DATE

NET

TIME (ET)

RAT.

VIEWERS (000)

NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Selection Show

3/13

CBS

6:00-7:00pm

4.0

n/a

NCAA Basketball: Big Ten Championship: Ohio State-Penn State

3/13

CBS

3:24-5:22pm

2.5

3,735

WGC-Cadillac Championship: Final Round

3/13

NBC

3:05-7:00pm

2.3

3,316

NCAA Basketball: SEC Championship: Kentucky-Florida

3/13

ABC

1:00-3:06pm

1.8

2,935

NCAA Basketball: Pac-10 Championship: Washington-Arizona

3/12

CBS

6:09-8:39pm

1.7

2,572

NCAA Basketball: Big Ten Semifinal:Penn State-Michigan State

3/12

CBS

4:06-6:09pm

1.6

2,536

NCAA Basketball: Big Ten Semifinal: Ohio State-Michigan

3/12

CBS

1:47-3:43pm

1.7

2,505

NBA: Magic-Suns

3/13

ABC

3:26-6:02pm

1.4

2,101

WGC-Cadillac Championship: Third Round

3/12

NBC

2:00-6:00pm

1.4

2,025

"NBA Countdown"

3/13

ABC

3:06-3:26pm

1.4

n/a

NCAA Basketball: SEC Semifinal: Kentucky-Alabama

3/12

ABC

1:00-3:07pm

1.1

1,607

NCAA Basketball: SEC Semifinal: Florida-Vanderbilt

3/12

ABC

3:24-5:30pm

1.0

1,576

NHL: Blackhawks-Capitals

3/13

NBC

12:30-3:05pm

0.8

1,241

NCAA Basketball: Atlantic-10 Championship: Richmond-Dayton

3/13

CBS

1:00-3:10pm

0.8

1,180

NCAA Basketball: Conference USA Championship: Memphis-UTEP

3/12

CBS

11:30am-1:47pm

0.8

1,139

"Road to the Final Four"

3/13

CBS

12:00-1:00pm

0.8

n/a

Sprint U.S. Snowboard GP (taped)

3/12

NBC

1:00-2:00pm

0.5

669

TELECAST

DATE

NET

TIME (ET)

RAT.

VIEWERS (000)

NBA: Lakers-Heat

3/10

TNT

7:15-9:51pm

3.1

4,844

NCAA Basketball: Big East Championship: UConn-Louisville

3/12

ESPN

9:00-11:18pm

2.0

3,291

"Fab Five"

3/13

ESPN

9:00-11:00pm

1.8

2,746

NBA: Knicks-Mavericks

3/10

TNT

9:51pm-12:25am

1.6

2,429

NCAA Basketball: Big 12 Championship: Kansas-Texas

3/12

ESPN

6:12-8:17pm

1.5

2,351

"College Gamenight: Bracketology"

3/13

ESPN

7:00-9:00pm

1.6

2,340

NCAA Basketball: Big East Semifinal: Connecticut-Syracuse

3/11

ESPN

7:00-9:23pm

1.4

2,304

NCAA Basketball: Big East Semifinal: Louisville-Notre Dame

3/11

ESPN

9:44pm-12:09am

1.3

2,238

NCAA Basketball: ACC Championship: Duke-North Carolina

3/13

ESPN

1:00-3:05pm

1.4

2,076

"College GameDay"

3/12

ESPN

8:17-9:00pm

1.2

1,768

HITTING THE GREEN: Golf Channel's first and second round coverage of the WGC-Cadillac Championship last Thursday and Friday averaged 1.07 million viewers for combined live and replay coverage, marking the best audience for the event's early rounds since '02, when coverage aired on USA Network (Golf Channel). Golf Channel's Erik Kuselias said TV "ratings have been unprecedentedly good so far through the first two months of the golf season," and the main reason is "they decided to go to sexier pairings or groupings" ("Morning Drive," Golf Channel, 3/18).

NOTES: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic averaged a 2.18 local rating in the DC market for last Friday's Hurricanes-Capitals game, marking "the 15th time the Caps have hit at least 2.0 this season" through 59 broadcasts. Last season, the Capitals earned at least a 2.0 local rating "14 times in their 76 CSN broadcasts." Two seasons ago, the team's local ratings "didn't hit the 2.0 ratings mark until the playoffs" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 3/14)….TNT's Lakers-Heat game last Thursday earned a 3.1 U.S. rating and 4.844 million viewers, marking the third most-watched NBA game on cable this season. Through 44 telecasts, the NBA on TNT is averaging a 1.6 rating and 2.446 million viewers, up 31% and 35%, respectively, from a 1.2 rating and 1.814 million viewers at the same point last season (Turner Sports).